Garnerbiker's Journey on planet Earth

This blog started as a trip journal for the summer of 2011 Europe trip of 69 days. My wife Katherine, and I decided to use the entire summer break that teachers get, and go crazy. Everything was new to us. I was surprised at the blog's following. It has now become a tradition to travel on our breaks and blog about it. I write mostly as a journal for myself and students, but also give travel ideas to others that might want to travel like us, or go to the places we have seen. Take a look at what's on here. The experiences that I have had through travel are continuously shaping my life. I recommend you get out there and do it!

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Thursday, July 10, 2014

Tallinn, Estonia to Lisbon, Portugal

We had a great nights sleep, scarfed down breakfast, packed the bags, got into the sauna one final time, and headed to the Tallinn airport. Our bags were loaded and we set off on the 3 mile journey down the road. Little did we know, it was up hill to the airport and crossed a few busy streets. We left with plenty of time and the hour walk was another great way to see the city.
After a little sweating, we made it!
Oh yes, another Bentley.
Here is what happened with our tickets: First we tried to use the automatic check in machine = FAIL. We then went to the counter attendant = FAIL. Then, we were directed to the ticket guy across the way. This guy would hopefully be our savior and get us on a flight to Portugal. The ticketing man was on the phone when we arrived at the desk, and when he hung up he asked what we needed. We told him that our first flight had been cancelled and we were sent an alternate option, but we were unable to check in. He found that for some reason we had no seats on the flights the computer bumped us to, and they were all full. He then started looking on his computer for some options. After many minutes of searching we were told that every flight to Lisbon he was pulling up was full, and that this is not normal. We now know that there is a huge music festival taking place later in the week, so this is why we were having such a difficult time. Finally, there was a flight with 2 seats. We would fly to Berlin, then to Paris, transfer somehow to the other Paris airport, then to Lisbon. Ouch. We said we could do it, but he said to let him try for something better. After several more minutes, he said he found something from Tallinn to Berlin to Frankfurt to Lisbon. There was a nice amount of time in between flights and could still make it to town by midnight. The second choice was much better. We thanked him kindly for and he said it was nothing, he was just doing his job. But, he was pleasant about it, and we were American tourists and things could have been worse. I really should have taken a picture with him since we know that without his persistent searching we would have been stuck in Tallinn for at least another day.
We checked our bags all the way to Lisbon with the hope of seeing them again 15 hours or so later. With 3 flights on 3 different airlines we knew there was a lot of room for error. Our bags might go missing forever.
Once through security we had lunch at a cool sushi restaurant. For airport food, it was not a bad deal. Yum yum.
Katherine getting ready to board the flight from Tallinn to Berlin.
For Andrew: an inflight option is a can of beer and beef jerky.
 
Our first flight landed in Berlin Tegel airport, and it is just as we remembered from 2011, strange and congested. The departure counters are in a big circle and you can only get into the gate area right before your flight boards. If you have a layover like we did, there is hardly anywhere to sit before you pass through to the boarding area. The place is a little dirty as well. Everything in there is REALLY expensive so I dove into the reserve food in my carry on bag. Soon it was time to board our quick flight to Frankfurt.

 

After the slight delay in Frankfurt, we were on Portugal's TAP airlines heading to Lisbon!

The flight from Frankfurt to Lisbon was 2 hours 40 minutes. To our surprise, dinner was served and wine as well. It was very comfortable.
Once in Lisbon, the metro was easy to find and use. All we had to do was get a card, put money on it, and get on the correct line. We made one change and a few stops later we were 3 blocks from the Yes! Hostel. We walked in at midnight to thumping music and a bunch of people getting ready to leave on a pub crawl. We were beat, and headed straight to bed. What a day!

 

 

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